Friar Basketball

A Look Back: Tyler Cavanaugh at the Boston Shootout

TylerCavanaugh

I didn’t know who Tyler Cavanaugh was the first time I saw him — at the Boston Shootout in May of 2011 — but he was perhaps the best player for the Albany City Rocks (ACR) that day and had just kicked off a summer that saw his recruitment take off.

At that time, Cavanaugh was being recruited by the likes of Vermont, where I figured he may excel as a power forward who shot very well from 18-19 feet and consistently connected at the free throw line. ACR was overmatched that weekend against BABC (they were without EYBL regulars Ricky Ledo, Dajuan Coleman, Zach Auguste and Olivier Hanlan — how did they team perform so badly on the Nike Circuit with all of that talent?), but Cavanaugh was very productive against perhaps the top defensive team in the country and carried that effort into the summer, proving to be more than just a glue guy on a team with four top 100 recruits.

Given opportunities to play alongside those stars, and take over when they weren’t at other tournaments, Cavanaugh began receiving high major offers. It started with Wake Forest (where he ended up, and is now transferring from), and then Syracuse, Notre Dame, Stanford and Boston College.

Cavanaugh is leaving Wake Forest because of a coaching change and he has already heard from Providence, Dayton, George Washington (who pursued heavily out of high school), Oregon and Colorado.

The opportunity to win will be a big factor for him, “I wrote down my goals — I want to make the NCAA Tournament, I want to compete for a conference championship,” Cavanaugh said. “I mean, I loved my time at Wake. My two years were great; up and down and I learned a lot about myself as a player. But I felt like it was time for me to move on to something else,” he told Syracuse.com.

Cavanaugh averaged 8.8 points per game last year and had some of his best games against top competition. His season high 20 points (on 10-12 at the free throw line) came in an upset of Duke, while he made 9-11 free throws against North Carolina and finished with 11 points and 8 rebounds against Kansas.

He’ll be termed a “stretch 4” but from what I recall of his game, Cavanaugh is more effective from that 18 foot range, and he made 84% of his free throws during ACC play.

The 6’9 power forward would have to sit out next season and has two years of eligibility remaining.

Twitter: Kevin_Farrahar

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